Before They Were Famous: The Oddest Odd Jobs of 10 Literary Greats reveals the jobs held by Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, Stephen King and others. They’re not that odd. Vonnegut managed a Saab dealership.  King was a janitor. Harper Lee handled reservations for Easter Air Lines. Still, it’s interesting to see what they did before becoming famous writers.

I’m no literary great, but I’d say the oddest job I held was working as a cashier and stocker at Toys R Us. Or maybe wrapping gifts in my mom’s little kiosk that she had for one holiday season. I also worked at Tandy’s offices (Radio Shack folks) as a file clerk. That’s about four jobs (not counting babysitting) by the time I graduated from high school. My high school senior daughter has had one job for three years: working at a brunch/lunch restaurant. She started as a hostess and she’s now the senior waitress.

The coolest pre-high school graduation job I had was data entry for an antique toy car catalog. Entering names and addresses sounds boring, but it paid well for a teen and I loved looking at those old cars. Barbie wasn’t my thing — AFX slot cars were. I loved taking apart the broken ones and trying to fix them.

Despite my preference of cars to dolls, I’m not responsible for my older son’s love of cars. (I can’t begin to give you an estimate on how many Hot Wheels we have between him and his younger brother.) One of my favorite clients just happens to be in the car business. I write content about the many cars his company sells.

For a long time, I regretted accepting the 20-minutes away Toys R Us job on the spot when I had another interview lined up with the public library two blocks from my house. Obviously, I love books plus I knew the staff at the library. I was 16. I didn’t know better. Besides, working at Toys R Us taught me a bit about business and retail. Learning the Dewey Decimal System would only help me find books faster.

What odd jobs have you had?

And now for your weekly linkage …

Brain food …

• The 7 Iconic, Transparent, Empowering Business Buzzwords That Need To Die. Never liked “transparency” in reference to social media. How about “honesty”?
• Twitterstories. Share your story by mentioning @twitterstories or by using the hashtag #twitterstories. Include a photo or video that helps illustrate your story.
• 18 Clever Organizing Tricks and Storage Ideas. My dad did the glass jars thing (#2). Maybe that’s where I got my organizational (obsession) skills from. My mom came up with #14 for our cookie / baking sheets.
• Free press release sites a detailed review. Reviews 60 free sites to identify those providing the best resource for searches, building links, etc.

And for fun because we’re allowed …

• What You Text vs. What I See. Hilarious and creepy at the same time.
• The Insane Choices You Face at the Drugstore. Dizzying. OK, what’s the cure for that? Infographic focuses on one symptom: headache.
• 12 Most Influential Perks for People with Low Klout Scores. You’re welcome.
• 24 Awesomely Awkward Vacation Photos. Got this one from my daughter.

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Or is that the quiet before the storm?

All of the kids get out of school early today. I’m trying to finish up my work so I can make the most of winter break. It’s been an overwhelming two weeks filled with anxiety. I try to tell myself to take it one day at a time and one to do item at a time. Then, celebrate each completed item. Normally, this works well. I guess when you haven’t even done the annual letter that you send to friends by this point, it’s not a good sign.

I’m one of those who tends to be the first one sending out the holiday letter. Haven’t even started it. That’s because I had to prioritize my list. My friends won’t fall apart if they don’t hear from me, whether it’s late or not this year. That goes for blogging, too. I enjoy blogging and sharing my experiences with you, but I had to sacrifice it because of priorities.

Yes, like exercise, people tell you… make time for it! Make time for blogging! Make time for this. Make time for that. Enough make times and you’ll have to take things off your list or change the priority into low ones.

By the way, exercise is one of my higher priorities. It affects my physical and mental health.

Next Friday is Christmas Eve. The following is New Year’s Eve. I hope that you will spend time offline enjoying whatever you enjoy whether it’s eating Chinese food or attending midnight services. Ooh, that reminds me… I need to see if I have a jigsaw puzzle that I haven’t done. I do one every year during winter break.

All right, time to let you go tour the goodies and for me to get back to work.

P.S. In case you wondered, I took that photo in the ’90s when I lived in DC. I don’t have an eye for photography, but proud of that picture.

Brain food…

• Make Calm Your Default Setting: Bob Burg teaches an important lesson. Some hospitals don’t just ask you if your pain is 1 through 10 with 10 being unbearable. They show you a picture with 10 faces illustrating pain from a touch to monstrous. What may be a catastrophe for one person is an annoyance to another.
• Strategy Made Simple: I think most of us know that social media for business should have a strategy and plan. But not all of us have the resources especially one-person businesses. Ron Ploof shares a simple table to help you manage your social media strategy.
• Breathtaking Facebook Fan Pages: Breathtaking may be a little strong, but they’re impressive and provide lots of great ideas. Many are from entertainment industry, but scroll down for food, beverage and misc.
• All About the Excerpt: Key to convincing people to buy the book. [Link: Elizabeth Craig]
• 10 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block Fast: Not yet another writer’s block advice column. Has a couple of unique ideas.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 15 Coolest Snowmen: Beware — a couple not safe for work.
• Bad Press Releases: 20 Worst Headlines Ever: Maybe not ever, ever… but pretty bad. [Link: Arik Hanson]
• 10 Most Powerful Tweets of 2010: Was Schwartz’ announcement this year? Anyway, anyone could do this type of post, but Twitter did a beautiful job. Keep watching Twitter’s Year in Review for more. [Link: Tim Berry and Liz Strauss]
• The History of Video Games (in song): I recognized Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” That may be no big deal to you, but this gal… does not have normal hearing
• 201 Mega Men: I woulda loved having this as a poster when I was a teen. What teen girl needs Kirk Cameron and Ricky Schroeder posters when you have adorable mega men? I guess I was a geek, huh?
• Amazon Provides a Dose of Humor: I had seen hilarious reviews here and there, especially The Mountain Three Wolf Moon Short Sleeve Tee. More gems hiding out there on the A to Z site.

How will you spend the last two weeks of the year?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans

• The Reality of a Times Bestseller: Think you have to go to 40 signings in one week, every conference, etc. etc. to have a best seller? Not in one author’s case.
• A Day in the Life of an Author: Great lesson for authors with new releases.
• 99 Free Online Classes on Business and Entrepreneurship [Link: SternalPR]
• How to get your press releases read, not trashed [Link: Susan Jacobsen]
• Productivity and Time Wasters in Social Media: Covers much of what I believe in when it comes to social media.
• 12 Ways to Reveal Suspicious Shortened URLs: Ching Ya put a LOT of time and effort into researching this for us. I use Firefox’s Longurlplz, but the drawback is when I do a RT in Twitter — copy/paste copies the longer URL and not the shorter version. So I have to right-click copy the URL to get the shortened version.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Strangest Allergies: I think being allergic to water is the worst.
• Tech Support Cheat Sheet: I do all I can to avoid making the call to tech support. Google, knowledgebase, forums…
• Awesome Transformer Costume: Gosh, Halloween isn’t so far off. And it’ll be the last year of first grade pumpkin math for my family
• Google Sightseeing: Funny sights.
• Rubik’s Cube for the Visually Impaired: I think this is a great tool for everyone to sharpen his/her senses by wearing a blindfold. I can’t do it without a blindfold, so it’d be pointless to try with one

Yeah!!! Did that sound too happy? I think summer would be more valuable if we stretched out the school year and have two to three week breaks at a time. Then, older kids would miss out the opportunity of having summer jobs or doing special programs. Eh, it’ll never change.

• If Only I Had Some Advice for Writers: I get questions like Rachelle does. Sometimes writing related and sometimes something else. When it’s writing, I point to this blog entry and this one prompted by a similar question. If you’re bold, send them to LMGTFY.
• Marketing Advice for Writers with Molly O’Neill: Mine — always make marketing part of your job no matter where you are in your project or career [Link: Greg Pincus].
• 5 Questions for Those Who Don’t Have Time to Market/Promote: See previous. No excuses for not marketing!
• The Press Releases of the Damned: Love this. I rarely predict things — but I called it on Palm’s Foleo. I had a better article on the Foleo ready for print publication, but Palm killed the product before the article was to print.
• How to Drive Traffic with Repeat Tweets: I repeat-tweet on occasion and it’s not a problem. Few people keep track of all your tweets and won’t notice unless you repeat yourself too often.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Broadway’s Next to Normal Goes Viral, the Twitterized version of the musical. Follow ‘em @n2nbroadway.
• 12 Funniest Wedding Cake Toppers
• Firekites’ Autumn Story Chalk Animation Video: I like the song and the animation fit well with the mood.
• Cardboard Sculptures: (Picture me: Jaw dropped, whites of my eyes peering)
• Grammar geeks unite! [Link: @kylejameson @lydiabreakfast]

Photo credit Mike Wade

The popularity of Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out (affectionately known as HARO) proves many of you, your company or clients want to get in the spotlight. Occasionally, Peter kicks folks off the list because they can’t follow one simple rule:

By joining this list, just promise me and yourself that you’ll ask yourself before you send a response: Is this response really on target? Is this response really going to help the journalist, or is this just a BS way for me to get my client in front of the reporter? If you have to think for more than three seconds, chances are, you shouldn’t send the response.

I use the mailing list from both sides: as a journalist and as an expert. Thank goodness I am a journalist because it helps me do better on the other side of things. I often put in my requests to use “HARO Subject” in Subject. You’d be surprised how many fail to do that. Based on this, it’s no wonder people disobey Peter’s numero uno rule. Furthermore, people embarrass themselves by sending a press release (PR) to media that have nothing to do with that industry, topic or anything. OK, I admit — sometimes we reporters don’t make ourselves clear (me, too).

So what are these simple, common sense rules that too many fail to follow? My top 8:

1. Read the publication: Businesses and PR pros send me PR regarding video and audio apps. It doesn’t take much to figure out I don’t do video or audio unless it has captions.
2. Contact the right reporter: You’re not going to send a company’s new computer product story to the sports reporter unless it’s about sports statistics.
3. Copy the column style: Many publications have regular columns and features based on businesses and people. When submitting for these regulars, copy the style to improve your chances of getting in.
4. Provide story ideas: Rather than tooting your company’s latest award (whoopee dee do), help the reporter by offering story ideas. Awards are best left on the company’s site and distributed in online PR sites rather than sent to reporters. I’m sure there are a few exceptions.
5. Share trends: Noticing a trend in your industry or business that few know about yet? Help the reporter jump on it (remember to contact the right publication and the right reporter so it doesn’t go to waste).
6. Select a few publications: Rather than trying to befriend everyone — pick a handful of publications and build those relationships. Simply contact the reporter to introduce yourself and ask if he/she is working on anything and needs resources.
7. Follow the reporter’s request to a tee: I often provide what I need from folks, yet some people respond with the “John Doe is an author of such-n-such and speaks on this topics. Call me to set up an interview.” Hello? The questions are right there — answer ‘em or kiss the opportunity good-bye.
8. Respect the reporter’s preferred communication method: I always put “No phone calls” in my requests. However, I know that some think it applies to the initial contact and that I’ll call ‘em. When it’s in my control, I skip the calls. If your expert doesn’t have time to email, I know others who do.

Bonus points: Research the reporter before making contact. Here’s a challenge. What can you find out about me? Both personal and professional?

My favorite story: I received a book about adopting cats to review. The only time I’ve ever mentioned cats was a few years ago when there was a internet cat joke floating around. I’m a dog person and I don’t review books about animals unless the title just happens to have an animal in the name such as Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? (it’s NOT about cats!).

If you have a product or book, you can send it to the publication, blogger or web site. But contacting them first ensures a better chance of seeing the item get reviewed. Besides, why waste a copy of Taking Care of Your Adopted Cat on me? I just donate it and hope someone can use it.

FYI: I don’t make a big deal out of those who can’t follow the simple “Subject” instructions — just giving you an example of something that’s easy to follow.

What other ways do you build your relationship with the media and get publicity?

Jakob Nielsen reports seeing a 9 percent improvement on company About pages. I rely on About pages when looking at companies either for research or for buying from them. I still run into the following problems:

• Struggle to find the About pages when they have one: they shouldn’t be buried or hard to find. “About” deserves top level navigation because it’s about earning trust and credibility. I shouldn’t have to use the search box to find them.
• Receive little valuable information: many companies provide only an overview that tells nothing about the company and what it does: sometimes it sounds like the company posts its useless vision or mission statement, which rarely makes sense to most of us (and sometimes employees, too!).
• Find no information about employees or executives. It helps to have some bios on the site along with photos. This puts a human face behind the company.

When looking at About pages, I expect to find the following (at a minimum):

• Instant understanding of what the company does. I shouldn’t have to read the whole page to figure out the company’s business. Unfortunately, this is common. The home page should also make it obvious what the company does.
• Contact information: Some companies put this on a Contact page, but it should also appear on the About page. Depending on the business, it also helps to have contact information on every page — it could be a toll free number for businesses selling products or an address for stores.
• Bios and photos: Again, people make the company and it adds credibility. I’ve seen too many sites selling products without bios — which doesn’t give me much comfort in shopping with them. Whose bio should appear depends on the company. Small companies might list all employees while large companies list the CEO and vice presidents.

Other useful About content (not all of these would appear on the About landing page), but not a requirement of all companies:

• Fact sheet: Basic information about the company including when founded, milestones, key bios. Sometimes referred as company backgrounder.
• Press page: This contains press contact’s information, media kit, list of press releases (linking to the full release), list articles appearing in (with links to full article or a file containing the article), photos, and logos.
• Company history: Where the company came from and where it is heading.
• Investor information: Provides the information investors want to see such as financial reports.

What other things do you look for when researching a company or considering doing business with them?

Reporters everywhere despise it when PR people call them and ask, “Did you get my [fill in the blank]?” Fill in the blank with your distribution preference: “e-mail, fax, or other means of distribution.”

We know e-mail can get lost somewhere on the Internet highway, but that doesn’t justify calling a busy reporter or editor with such a silly question. The Washington Post [Link: Publicity Hound] pokes fun at this frustrating practice.

One of my current projects involves contacting writers and editors of the appropriate publication (a mistake many PR people make… sending it to publications that have nothing to do with their release or business — or at least, they don’t make a connection).

Based on experience as a person on both the sending and receiving end of PRs, I think what’s most effective is a note personalized to the recipient and publication that focuses on what readers could get out of a story and proposing story ideas.

Some publications accept articles from companies (IF they’re not marketing-speak) — take advantage and propose story ideas that complement the publication and avoid topics that have already appeared in the publication unless it’s reporting something new or different. Using this method, two publication responded to my e-mail and we’re working on something.

At the end of the message, let the recipient know there’s a PR WITHIN the e-mail for FYI. Don’t make the message about the PR. Writing creative PRs works — but some clients prefer sticking with traditional PRs. Focus time and energy on that personalized intro.